As I settle back into the daily routine in Atlanta after my trip to see Kansas City and St. Louis, I can't help but think about last night's starter, Derek Lowe, and how hard we tried to trade him this past off-season. Then I saw this article by Jeff Schultz where he says that dealing Javier Vazquez and re-signing Tim Hudson was the right move by Frank Wren. But Schultz is only half right.

Re-signing Tim Hudson was a no-brainer, and yes, so far looks like a good move. He was willing to give us a hometown discount, he proved he was healthy and could pitch again, and he had a track record of success. But Schultz' first point about trading Vazquez is a little off. He's making the point that because Vazquez has stunk it up with the Yankees so far this season that it's a good thing we got rid of him... then he goes on to quote Curt Schilling who says that Javy is a National League pitcher and not an American League pitcher (and that presumably he would not be having the kinds of problems he's having if he were in the NL).

While on the surface saying that trading away a guy with a 9.00 ERA was a good move, the reality is that he probably wouldn't have been that kind of pitcher if he had stayed in Atlanta (though, there is no way to find out.... or is there?). Buster Olney mentioned in his blog a few days back that the Braves could move Derek Lowe in a salary dump. Yep, we still need to get rid of this guy. I wonder, at this point, if the Yankees would be up for a Vazquez for Lowe swap? That's pure fiddle faddle on my part, but something the Yanks could consider if they were inclined to think that Lowe would be an upgrade (we could even give them Melky Cabrera back).

Another interesting scenario could have us trade Lowe (or dump Lowe) for whatever we could get in return, and then try and sign Vazquez next off-season. He may be begging to come back to Atlanta at that point, and we could offer him the same or similar deal that we gave Hudson, and hope and pray that he's better once he's back in the NL. The Hudson contract is three years guaranteed for a total of $28 million. After this year, Lowe has two years and $30 million left on his contract. That would be a nice swap.

This is mainly a pipe dream and fantasy trade scenarios run amok, and as bad as Lowe has done we should probably worry about the offense first, but it's never too early to put our thinking caps on.